St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-16

HCfcI Speak lulpaGle1llly again, never
weary YOU, ii you will only cOme," she
says, '"Only come, Francis, my love,
my alp
There is great agony in her cry; but
he does not come. The last train is in.
There are no more trains till morning.
why does not the morning come? Oh,
WHY? She filings herself upon the earth
ana Sr0velS In her terror and suspense.
back to met
And dawn breaks and the sun is risen,
and happy day smiles upon the earth.
But he has not returned.
The servant goes about the house
singing careless song. Does the SER
want know the mistress agony?
toward noon the servant goes down
to the village postoffice and presently
returns with letter.
Give it to me-" the mistress says, her
race whittier than the white sails Oh the
distant water.
She is cold and dead at heart She
knows his handwriting. She must read
and-live OF die.
The words must burn through her
eyes and fire her brain. Yet she does
not cry out or fall SWOOning. She OILY
reads and reads again his cold farewell.
BETTER for us to part at once. n Il
we have made mistake. Be
tore reading this you will have heard of
your husbands suicide. You drove him
to 1t. He was good husband to you
and you deceived him. We might live
on together even now, when love is
dead, but you could hardly expect me
TO respect you, knowing your crime to-
wards him. !" Formy part
am heartily sorry.
The servant had gone away, and the
woman who read this fell down on her
face upon the floor.
God she cried huskily; ''my
crime. lie told me what to do. He
urged me--he implored. 1t was for his
sake that | sinned, and now he turns to
taunt me-"
She had cried her last strength of
passion out with these few husky words.
Now>She lay silent for time. 1t was
the end. She saw that his love was
dead and he could not respect her. She
would not have him come back to her
now, not for all the wealth of the uni
verse. She would not have him back.
But how TO live without him? How to
live, to think. to breathe? How TO keep
from slrieking to heaven to let her die?
Francis loved her no longer. The end
had come. 1t was Nemesis. She had
wrOnged her husband; that husbands
death avenged the wrong. All was
over, and welcome death at any hour.
The afternoon had dragged to its close:
the sun had set,and a soft breeze stirred
the glorious trees in the road. Twilight
deepened.
slender form went out of the house.
and Down the path. and through the
gate. She did not look back, though
she knew she was going out forever.
- al M trJy hnr 70 nla, r..
upward for any starlight to bless. She
walked with head bent down, cold as if
half dead already.
Sometimes she said over to herself her
name. Irene" and his name, Fran
els
Dusk was fully come as she left the
road and went slowly down the railroad
track towards the dark shadow of the
deep cut.
Into the shadow she passed slowly,
resolntely' untrembiingly.
The train sped swiftly along. One
man sat with head thrown back and
eyes fixed upon the car lamps.
1T is quite dark by this time he
said. Il wonder if she is lonely. |
wonder if she has cried much. and if
she is wishing for me to come now. :.
| shouldn't have written that letter.
But she'll forgive me. . No; was
a brute, suppose. 4. Still she made
me so mad. And that internal suicide.
=. She loved me very much: she
must have loved me to go with me.
Well, it's all over now. He's dead.
Wei marry and she'll get over she'd
ding tears and moping, She'll get over
it when her health is better. -. |
wish hadn't written that letter. I'll
not CO 1t again. She must have loved
me very much. don't suppose, in her
place, I'd have made the sacrifice. And
she's been very true and good to me-
There was queer vibration of the car.
He stopped thinking and sat up. The
train was coming to an abrupt stop.
This was not station. They were not
yet at Westtieid. Had anything hap
pered-any accident?
The train had come to full stop. 1t
was backing up now quite slowly.
He thought he would 90 out OH the
platform and see what the trouble was
or had been.
Ee ivtrtd little at what he heard.
Someone walking upon the track had
been struck and killed.
By-and-by, after considerable delay,
he saw them lifting a white mass and
carrying it upon stretcher.
He hurried forward from his carriage,
as the train began slowly to move on
ward.
And now he shuddered more and
more. Fer some one said: "a woman.
young and beautiful And some one
else. ''Mangled. No. not bleeding
much" And still another voice said,
yellow hair i'll curls, and slender
He had reached the stretcher in the
guards van. He pushed through the
men who stood talking with Mortified
countenances: he reached out and
lifted the covering from the dead face.
''Merciful heavens" he cried thiclly.
''Irene!' and fell senseless beside her.
And so, and so the railway ghost
walks. ever sad and wan, below the vii
lage in the deep railway cut, the same
on murky nights as when the clear stars
shine or the bland moon smiles upon
the woes of many mortals.